And now we are ready for the Prussian Creed. The following is an
embodiment, a composite statement, of Prussianism, compiled sentence
by sentence from the utterances of Prussians, the Kaiser and his
generals, professors, editors, and Nietzsche, part of it said in cold
blood, years before this war, and all of it a declaration of faith now
being ratified by action:
"We Hohenzollerns take our crown from God alone. On me the Spirit of
God has descended. I regard my whole ... task as appointed by heaven.
Who opposes me I shall crush to pieces. Nothing must be settled in
this world without the intervention ... of ... the German Emperor. He
who listens to public opinion runs a danger of inflicting immense harm
on ... the State. When one occupies certain positions in the world one
ought to make dupes rather than friends. Christian morality cannot be
political. Treaties are only a disguise to conceal other political
aims. Remember that the German people are the chosen of God.
"Might is right and ... is decided by war. Every youth who enters a
beer-drinking and dueling club will receive the true direction of his
life. War in itself is a good thing. God will see to it that war
always recurs. The efforts directed toward the abolition of war must
not only be termed foolish, but absolutely immoral. The peace of
Europe is only a secondary matter for us. The sight of suffering does
one good; the infliction of suffering does one more good. This war
must be conducted as ruthlessly as possible.
"The Belgians should not be shot _dead_. They should be ... so left as
to make impossible all hope of recovery. The troops are to treat the
Belgian civil population with unrelenting severity and frightfulness.
Weak nations have not the same right to live as powerful ... nations.
The world has no longer need of little nationalities. We Germans have
little esteem and less respect ... for Holland. We need to enlarge our
colonial possessions; such territorial acquisitions we can only
realize at the cost of other states.
"Russia must no longer be our frontier. The Polish press should be
annihilated ... likewise the French and Danish.... The Poles should be
allowed ... three privileges: to pay taxes, serve in the army, and
shut their jaws. France must be so completely crushed that she will
never again cross our path. You must remember that we have not come to
make war on the French people, but to bring them the higher
Civilization. The French have shown themselves decadent and without
respect for the Divine law. Against England we fight for booty. Our
real enemy is England. We have to ... crush absolutely perfidious
Albion ... subdue her to such an extent that her influence all over
the world is broken forever.
"German should replace English as the world language. English, the
bastard tongue ... must be swept into the remotest corners ... until
it has returned to its original elements of an insignificant pirate
dialect. The German language acts as a blessing which, coming direct
from the hand of God, sinks into the heart like a precious balm. To
us, more than any other nation, is intrusted the true structure of
human existence. Our own country, by employing military power, has
attained a degree of Culture which it could never have reached by
peaceful means.
"The civilization of mankind suffers every time a German becomes an
American. Let us drop our miserable attempts to excuse Germany's
action. We willed it. Our might shall create a new law in Europe. It
is Germany that strikes. We are morally and intellectually superior
beyond all comparison.... We must ... fight with Russian beasts,
English mercenaries and Belgian fanatics. We have nothing to apologize
for. It is no consequence whatever if all the monuments ever created,
all the pictures ever painted, all the buildings ever erected by the
great architects of the world, be destroyed.... The ugliest stone
placed to mark the burial of a German grenadier is a more glorious
monument than all the cathedrals of Europe put together. No respect
for the tombs of Shakespeare, Newton and Faraday.
"They call us barbarians. What of it? The German claim must be: ...
Education to hate.... Organization of hatred.... Education to the
desire for hatred. Let us abolish unripe and false shame.... To us is
given faith, hope and hatred; but hatred is the greatest among them."